The sun is shining this morning and our spirits immediately rise because this winter was a harsh one for Skopelos. Spring is in the air and hopefully temperatures will start rising above the double digits! This video was send to us by Francois. We like it. There is hope for octopuses. Thank you Francois!

Pity poor Ithaki, which has been politely hosting rogue capitalist soon-not-to-be-Sir Philip Green and his third superyacht, the 90-metre Lionheart. An unusually combative Sky News journalist tracked him down to what we believe is the chi-chi port of Kioni, where the soon-not-to-be-Sir Philip took umbrage at being asked why he was flitting around the Ionian on hols when he was meant to be sorting out the £571million hole in the pension scheme at the failed BHS empire – an empire that the soon-not-to-be-Sir Philip relieved of £400million before he sold it off for £1 to another dodgy wideboy. The funniest part of the video, after Phil threatens to push the cameraman into the sea, is the crewman handing him a bottle of water and scarpering out of the way of the camera.

Eleven thousand sacked BHS workers probably won’t be able to afford a holiday on Ithaki this summer. Some might, however, want to apply for any vacancies in the 40-strong crew the Lionheart employs, including the full-time dog walker.

Campaigners say allowing the reunification of the Parthenon sculptures kept in London with those still in Athens could be a diplomatic coup for the UK as it negotiates Brexit. A cross-party group of MPs has launched a fresh bid to return the statuary to Greece on the 200th anniversary (1816-2016) of the British Government’s decision to buy them. Campaigners have said this could help the UK secure a better deal during the Brexit talks with the EU.

The issue has long been a source of tension between, on one side, the UK government and the British Museum, where the 2,500-year-old marbles are currently on display, and, on the other, Greece and international supporters of the reunification of the Parthenon sculptures.

About half the surviving sculptures were taken from the Parthenon in Athens by Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin, and later bought by the British Government after parliament passed an Act that came into force on 11 July, 1816. The other half are currently in the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

Irini Akritidou, a woman from Thessaloniki — a grand daughter of refugees from Pontos who learned to knit from her grandmother — has started a movement to turn her knitting skills that were passed from one generation to the 21st century’s refugees.
In just a few months, several thousand people have joined the Knitting Solidarity Facebook Group and calls to action are sent via Facebook to women throughout Greece — and now the world. To date, thousands of hats, scarves and sets of gloves have been made “Made with love and solidarity for these people,” Dimitra Fotiadou, one of the group’s organizers, told The Pappas Post in an interview.

When asked if the group would accept cash donations to further their work, Fotiadou said they were not in the charity business — and only wanted to use their skills to help fellow human beings in need. As a result, the group doesn’t take cash donations — only donations of yarn!

It is great to go on holiday, see family and friends and visit new or familiar places but to be back on Skopelos is the best.

New technologies, the latest trends cannot replace the friendly greetings, the heartfelt wishes for a good New Year we received coming back. This is why I love writing about Skopelos. It is home, I knew it but sometimes I need to go away to remember. A happy, healthy New Year from Skopelosnews with lots of love and happiness and hopefully everybody is surrounded by their loved ones.
Daphne

We found this online feature via the Greek Reporter site. Called “Books on the Map” the site features locations of literature written by Greek authors. Interested readers can navigate the map and click on the red points which will reveal title, author and a brief synopsis of a book or books. The text is in Greek and can be copied and pasted into an online translator to be read in any language one prefers for the usual online translation semi-comprehension.